Only Shades of Gray
by Closet Author
Summary: Post OotP: War. Power. Lust. Greed. Harry is tempted by all, and learns a valuable lesson while struggling to fight the Dark.


Only Shades of Gray 

Chapter 1: Shut Out

Harry thought that after the warning the members of the Order had given the Dursleys at the train station, which was to treat him with more respect than a stubborn grease spot on Aunt Petunia's sparkling white kitchen counters, that things might have changed a bit for him once he arrived "home."  Not that Harry ever considered his upstairs prison chamber home accompanied by his narrow-minded relatives.  Even if it was for his safety, he dreaded staying there over the long, searing hot summer without a word from anyone.

The journey home started well enough.  Harry, assisted by Uncle Vernon, loaded his belongings into the boot of the car in total silence.  Harry found this behavior rather unusual because it had become a routine of his uncle's to blow smoke and warn Harry in an irritated whisper that he would never be going back to that school of his.  Of course that would never happen – the Dursley's were rather fond of having Harry gone during the school year.  

Harry had always tried to hold back his grin back as he watched Vernon turn his head from side to side nervously, for he was obviously paranoid that someone he knew would somehow discover the dreaded secret about his nephew – as if the people passing on the streets had x-ray vision and could see right into Harry's trunk full of magical devices.  But, with the death of his godfather Sirius Black still fresh in his mind, there seemed to be nothing that could cheer him up.  He didn't even mind his trunk being banged up as Uncle Vernon tried to load it into the car as quickly as possible.

Harry tried not to get his hopes up that maybe the ride home would be equally as quiet, but even Dudley kept his distance while pressing his large body as close to the window, and as far away from Harry, as he could get.  

"_Hmmm... Maybe he's afraid I'll rally up the dementors after him if he gets on my bad side," thought Harry as he eyed his cousin curiously.  It didn't matter how much Dudley had chased, beat up, and humiliated Harry, he wouldn't wish the unbearable, icy sadness that a person felt in the company of a dementor on anybody.  _

Harry wasn't in the mood to start any commotion with his cousin, so before he could meet Dudley's eye, he turned his gaze to his window.  His mind drifted from the results of his O.W.L.s... to Snape's worst memory of his father... to the prophecy... and finally... to Sirius.  Sirius' death was his entire fault.  If only he hadn't of been so stupid to be fooled by Voldemort's trick...  A tear came to his eye as he remembered the funeral, and he quickly wiped it away from under his glasses.  His body hadn't even been in the coffin...

The sadness mixed, and then slowly became overtaken, by intense anger and hatred.  When the news of Sirius's tragic death got out, probably by the bragging of Bellatrix Lestrange, the _Daily Prophet had printed a ridiculous front page article in a tone that almost _celebrated_ Sirius' death.  It read that with the return of Voldemort, at least one of his followers could no longer kill the innocent.  It was lies written to lessen the rising panic and fear of the wizarding world and make people think that the Ministry was cracking down on Voldemort's gang quickly.  Of course, they forgot to say that his godfather died in the Department of Mysteries saving Harry, that he had been fighting with the Order and had never been on Voldemort's side in the first place, and that the Ministry's Aurors weren't the ones who had killed Sirius._

What angered Harry even more, however, was the fact that Dumbledore didn't do or say anything about it.  He claimed it would look suspicious if they publicly mourned the death of a most wanted ex-convict who had escaped Azkaban.  According to Dumbledore and the rest of the Order, they needed to gain the Ministry's trust – that the Ministry would be valuable in stopping Voldemort – that most people still had faith in their government – therefore gaining trust in the common people as well.

Harry silently fumed, _"To hell with the Ministry! It's just filled with power hungry, corrupt, no good, lying bastards!  Why do we need them?  They can't even stop Voldemort and Lestrange and Malfoy and the rest of that scum from breaking into their headquarters!"  Harry held back from screaming out loud__, " WHY DOES DUMBLEDORE, THE MOST POWERFUL WIZARD IN THE WORLD, NEED BACKING UP BY THE MINISTRY? TO HELL WITH DUMBLEDORE!"_

Harry hadn't realized the car had stopped, and that he was sitting there all alone.  As a snap back to reality, Uncle Vernon sneered while he jerked open Harry's door, "Get out, boy! We're home."  He added in a low voice dripping in sarcasm, "Or is our home not suitable for the freak?"

Harry was using up all his energy not to punch his uncle's fat face, who's spit was showering everywhere as he bellowed out orders.  It seemed as though after the Order's talk with him had regrettably worn off.  Blocking out Uncle Vernon's shrill commandments wasn't the best thing to do, because the next thing Harry heard was, "Alright then, I'll just leave you out here!  Like I care if you get killed by the cement-or whatchamacallits!  I'll call the cops on them if they show up!"  Them, was of course, the members of the Order of the Phoenix that had chatted with the Dursleys before handing them over to Harry.  

Harry rolled his eyes at the stupidity of his uncle's words, although he was used to such ridiculous things spouting out of his mouth.  

_"Honestly! Policemen wouldn't have a chance with the Order.  Mad Eye alone would scare them off."_

 As Harry's back was to the house while he tried to drag his heavy trunk up the driveway, he heard the door slam.  He abandoned the trunk and ran up to the door, but he had been locked out.  He stood there for a second, wondering if he should be sad at this excuse to run away.

***

"Harry!" exclaimed a surprised Arabella Figg as she opened her door. As if it finally sunk in that he really was standing there sheepishly at her doorstep, instead of safely in his room, a worried frown replaced her smile, and she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"The Dursley's locked me out," he said half annoyed, half relieved.  Maybe, just maybe, he could go and stay with Ron and Hermione for the summer?

Mrs. Figg stomped her foot and shook her head, muttering, "I can't believe it," repeatedly to herself.  "Those awful people!  After what happened last summer you'd think that they would be a little bit more careful!" she added, referring to the attack lead by Umbridge, when the dementors attacked Harry and Dudley.

Harry interrupted her fuming.  "That's the thing – I think they don't want to be around me if something like that does happen.  They would want to be as far away as possible."

Her arms were up in the air now and her usually pleasant face was getting quite red.  "Selfish, pig headed, Muggles!  They should all rot in- Ohhhh, I thought Dumbledore had a nice, long chat with your aunt Petunia.  He ought to have broken that agreement a long time ago."

Before Harry could question her on the details of the agreement, she hurried Harry inside.  Harry sat down on an armchair covered in knitted, moth eaten blankets, and when he sat down he could see dust flying from off the armrests.  He looked over to Mrs. Figg.  She was still at the doorway, peering out of the house, her head darting from one direction to the next.

She whispered, "Psst! Mundungus? Mundungus? Why, if you aren't there I'm going to-!"

Crawling out from behind the bushes, a slurred voice hollered, "I'm here you nag! I'm here!"

"Well, I'm sure you were watching Harry well from behind those bushes of my house, right?  You drunken fool! Good thing Harry had enough sense to come over here! I can't count on you to tell me anything!"

Mundungus gave her a confused look while trying to stand up.  "What?  Hey, don't go blaming me for nothing, I didn't even know he was back yet!"  He then fell over on his side.

"You were supposed to be watching!" she screamed.  Some of the neighbors peered out from under their curtains to see what the commotion was all about.

"Shhh! Do you want the whole neighborhood to hear?" he said as he attempted to stand up again.  His long hair was stringy and greasy, much resembling Snape's.  Harry assumed he had not taken a shower in days.

"Errr! Just go fetch Harry's trunks! Honestly, you're as useless as Devil's Snare in a sun room!"

She slammed the door, and after a few choice words under her breath, Mrs. Figg was as pleasant as ever.  "Some tea, dear?" she asked, smiling.

"Uh, sure."  Three black cats were rubbing up against his legs, and he bent down to pet one of them.  He looked at the cat's shining heart shaped name tag, and read with a raised brow that whom he was petting was Mr. Wiggles.

"Some name," he muttered as Mrs. Figg was busy in the kitchen fixing him tea.  His attention went from the cats to the stack of magic books on the stand beside him.  He picked up the very top one, and read the title – _Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1_. It seemed to him that Mrs. Figg, a self-proclaimed squib, was trying her best to enhance her magical abilities.

"Here you go dear."  He put the book down as she handed him a cup and saucer.  Before he could reply a polite thank you, there was a loud thud followed by a screech coming from just outside the door.  Harry set his tea down and followed Mrs. Figg to where the noise was coming from.

She flung the door opened and gasped.  Mundungus was passed out, and Hedwig's cage lay toppled over.  They both darted for the cage.

"Are you alright, Hedwig?" Harry asked as he turned the cage upright and let the bird out.  She had been cramped up in the cage too long.  She hooted what Harry took to be a yes, and he let her go hunt, watching her fly into the disappearing sunset.

They took Harry's things inside, then pulled Mundungus into the house, each grabbing one of his legs.  As they heaved him onto the couch, cats scampering to move out of the way, Mrs. Figg said exasperatedly, "I swear, if I was the least bit able, I would have made it so any Firewhiskey that touched his lips came right back out!" Harry didn't object to that.

After retrieving her tea, the old woman sunk into the closest chair.  They sat in silence for a moment, and it seemed to Harry that she was deep in thought.

She shot up so suddenly that some of her tea spilled out of her cup and onto the carpet without her noticing.  "I better owl Dumbledore.  It's not safe for you to be here.  Mundungus is passed out and even more useless, and I couldn't fend off a house elf!  Oh, wait until he hears what those heartless Muggles did!"  She rambled on and on as she scribbled furiously on a piece of parchment.

Harry's heart leapt.  Hopefully, he would be able to stay at the Number Twelve Grimmauld Place with Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Lupin, and all the others after all!

When Mrs. Figg had sent her owl off, stressing to the creature how urgent it was, and cooled down a bit, Harry decided to question her on Dumbledore and Petunia's agreement.

Harry gulped the last of his tea down and asked casually, "So, what agreement has Aunt Petunia broken?"

She hesitated, as though she was thinking whether or not it was her place to tell him, but finally answered with another question, "Your aunt has never told you about her past, has she?"

Harry shook his head, looking very puzzled.  

She continued slowly, "Well, your mother wasn't the only daughter of Angela Evans to attend Hogwarts."

Harry's jaw dropped and he sputtered, "You mean – Aunt Petunia – a witch?"  It couldn't be possible.  Even uttering a word about magic seemed to disgust her.

"Yes.  For only a year though."

"Why for only a year? Did she get expelled?" he asked.

"No, not exactly.  You see, she was a rather poor student, and dreadfully unkind- complete opposite of your mother.  She was so jealous of your mother, and was just downright awful to her."

Harry, knowing how his aunt treated him, interrupted, "Well, that's not too surprising."

As Mr. Wiggles hopped onto her lap, she continued.  "Your father always loved Lily, would do anything for her, even if he went about it in the wrong way." She paused for a moment and stared blankly at the wall.  "Anyway, James decided if Lily wasn't going to take revenge on her sister, he would do it for her- a sort of twisted way to show her how much he liked her I gues. He absolutely humiliated Petunia.  I'm not sure what he did, Dumbledore never said, but she was so embarrassed that she quit school because of it.  It look Lily years to forgive your father for what he had done to Petunia."

Harry didn't know how to feel.  A part of him was disappointed in his father, just as he was when he saw Snape's memory, but another part of him thought that she probably got what she deserved.  He wasn't sure if Mrs. Figg would know, but he decided to take a shot at it.  

"Do you know why my father didn't like Snape?"

"Well, I'm sure the fact that he was dating Petunia had something to do with it."

Harry jaw dropped yet again.  "What?"

"Oh yes, it's true.  Apparently they were both in the same house."

Harry couldn't help but twist his face in disgust by the picture in his mind of Professor Snape and Aunt Petunia kissing. _"That's just wrong!"_ he thought.

"Snape was furious and heartbroken when she left.  Petunia never spoke to anyone connected to the wizarding world again if she could help it, not even Severus or Lily, even though they stood up for her.  Snape was always going around trying to poison or hex your father."

Harry felt even worse than when he saw a humiliated fifteen-year-old Snape hanging upside down with his pants down.  His father had started the whole thing…

After letting all this new information sink in, Harry realized he still didn't know what the agreement had been.  "So the agreement was?"

"To not have her son get a Hogwarts letter and never have anyone utter a word to her family that she had been a witch if she cared for you.  That's why I consider her just as Muggle as the rest of them.  Not just Muggles – _dreadful Muggles, they are.  It wasn't your fault you're Jame's son.  They shouldn't treat you so poorly after all you've been through."_

Aunt Petunia, a witch? Dating Snape? Dudley accepted to Hogwarts?

Before Harry could be shocked any more, a cracking noise caused Harry to look into the kitchen.  Mrs. Weasley had just apparated, looking just as furious as Mrs. Figg had been when she first saw Harry at her doorstep.

Harry smiled and got up as Mrs. Weasley gave Harry a bear hug.  "Nice to see you dear."

"Nice to see you too."  As Harry pulled back from the hug, he heard two more cracking noises.  It was Fred and George, who were beaming at Harry.  He noticed that they both had on their bright green dragon skin suits on again.

Mrs. Weasley put one hand on her hip, the other pointed at the twins.  "I thought I told you two to stay put!" she said angrily.

George walked up to his mother, and leaned over to rest his head on her shoulder.  He sighed, "Ah, mum, we're just being gentlemen.  Come to fetch Harry's things for him!"

Fred placed his head on her other shoulder.  "Yeah, and that stupid woman kept on screaming at us. We'd much rather hear you scream," he whispered.

"What did you say?" she asked, as if daring him to speak it a little louder.

Fred paused.  "I love you!" he said in a babyish voice.  Harry stifled a laugh.

"That's what I thought you said."  She moved away from her sons.  "Now enough fooling around! Help gather up Harry's things and we'll be off and out of Mrs. Figg's way."

Mrs. Figg spoke up at once as she handed Hedwig's cage to Harry.  A tomcat was gazing at it longingly, as though wishing there was actually a bird in there to play with... and eat.  "Oh, it was no trouble at all! I've missed Harry!" she said to Mrs. Weasley as she patted Harry on the back.

They all said their goodbyes, and Fred and George Disapparated while Mrs. Weasley and Harry took the Floo Network since Harry was underage.  Mrs. Figg's fireplace was nice and wide, and Mrs. Weasley decided that they could easily make the trip together.  As soon as she threw the power and yelled out "The Burrow", he was traveling very fast through a whirlwind of lights and colors.  He shut his eyes tightly – he did not enjoy this method of travel very much.

Sooner than he had expected, he was on a cold, marble floor, which even through closed eyes was odd to him – he could have sworn the Weasley's had a wooden floor.  He flung his eyes open, only to shut them again.  He felt dizzy and the lights were so bright...

"What on earth is this?" he heard Mrs. Weasley shout behind him.  Harry strained his eyes to look back at her, and once they focused he noticed her dusting herself off and fixing her hair rather hurriedly.  She helped Harry off the floor, and for the first time he realized where he was by the repaired golden fountain – the Ministry of Magic.

A rather bored looking guard with quite a stomach gut replied calmly, "Unauthorized Floo travel.  Had to pick you up."  Harry noticed the man had a shiny badge on his shirt.  Harry assumed he was a low man on the Law Enforcement Squad's totem pole.

Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley was beginning to tap her foot in annoyance.  "I was not aware that you had to have authorization to travel by Floo Powder!"

"Only took effect a few days ago – so the Ministry is letting it slide for the first month.  If you fail to obey the rules after that, you will be fined.  Repeated offenders will have wand suspensions."  The man confiscated their wands briefly and entered their names into a big logbook.  

"What is that thing?" asked Harry as the man, known by his tag as Luco, (which sounded like a whale to Harry), was waving the tip of a device which looked like a wand all around Harry.

"Just standard security precautions," he sighed.

"Well, how do you get authorized to travel the Floo Network?" Mrs. Weasley asked as the man stopped at Harry's scar.

"OUCH!"  His scar was beginning to throb horribly.

Luco ignored Mrs. Weasley and muttered, "How peculiar.  I don't see how a scar can breach security..."

"Hello? I'm talking to you!"

He rolled his eyes and answered Mrs. Weasley, who seemed to be getting closer and closer to the man's portly face the longer he didn't answer her.  He stopped pointing his long, metal wand to Harry's scar.  Harry noticed the pain immediately ceased.  "You have to go down to that office right there," - he pointed to the location with the wand –  "and get a permit.  They cost five sickels a month for each person."

Mrs. Weasley's eyes seemed to bulge out her head that Harry was afraid they might pop out.  "WHAT?  SOUNDS MORE LIKE A SCAM TO GET MONEY THAN A SAFETY CONCERN!"  Harry was just as ticked off as Mrs. Weasley.  The Weasley family was already tight on money.

"Don't cry about it to me, lady."  He said as he handed them back their wands.

Mrs. Weasley stormed off, the color of her cheeks matching her red hair.  She was muttering swear words under her breath before finally turning to Harry.  "Well, I suppose we are going to have to get those permits.  That's the only way to bring you home from this—this... _place!"  Harry thought that she had wanted to say something worse before the word "place", but he could see she didn't want to cause a scene.  Well, a bigger scene._

They took a right down the hallway, and saw a big sign overhead a desk that said: _Floo Network Permits.  Apparently, loads of people did not know about the new Ministry decree, and they waited in line for what seemed like hours.  While they waited, Mrs. Weasley did not utter a word._

By the time they were next in line, the old woman in charge seemed to not be feeling too well.  "Just a minute, dears," she replied to them as she disappeared behind an array of filing cabinets.  But the lady did not return after 10 minutes, and the people queued up were getting rather restless at the lack of progress the line was making.

Finally, a voice muttered, "All right, all right!  I'm here to fill in for Mrs. Patil.  She seemed to have gotten the sudden case of the flu."  Harry recognized the uppity tone instantly.  It was Percy.

Percy did not make eye contact with them as he sat down no more than a foot away.  Finally, after shuffling around some papers, he stared right into Mrs. Weasley's eyes.  They were silent for a while, and Harry shifted his eyes from one Weasley to the other, and wondered who was going to speak up first.  Talk about awkward.

"Name?" Percy asked indifferently to his mother.  Mrs. Weasley's eyes welled up with tears, and Harry couldn't believe just how cold and heartless Percy had become.  

_"How low! Acting as if your own mother was a stranger," Harry thought.  _"He's as bad as Aunt Petunia forgetting she even _had_ a sister."__

"Molly Aphrodite Weasley," she said while trying to cover up her trembling voice with a cough.

Percy scribbled her name onto a form.  "Birth date?"  He continued asking for her personal information, though clearly he knew most of it.  He then turned to Harry and asked him the same things as well.

Finally, Percy set his quill neatly in the case and sighed as he spun around in the chair, "Okay, done."  He pressed a button on a machine to his left, and out popped two Ministry-approved permits.  "That will be ten sickles."

Mrs. Weasley rummaged through her purse.  "Oh, I know I have some money in here somewhere!"

"It's alright, Mrs. Weasley, I can pay it."  Harry quickly took the money out of his pockets and handed it to Percy.  He didn't want to see that face any longer.

"Have a nice day," Percy said dryly.  "Next!"

Harry saw Mrs. Weasley pull out a handkerchief to blow her nose.  After she was done, she insisted to Harry that she would pay him back, no matter how many times he told her it was all right.  The Weasleys had always sent him gifts and taken him in, even if they could barely afford it.  Now that Sirius was gone, the Weasleys were the closest thing to family Harry had.  No, the Dursleys did not count.

They stood in front of the nearest fireplace and Harry slipped his permit into his pocket, and checked to make sure it was secure.  He did not want to loose it on the way to the Burrow.  

***

"Mum! Harry! Hey Dad, they're back! Finally!" Harry heard the Weasleys all excitedly shouting.

Arthur Weasley came running in from the kitchen, looking rather relieved.  "Good.  I was starting to get a bit worried.  What took you so long?"

Molly explained everything to her husband – everything except the part about Percy.  It would hurt Mr. Weasley too much, Harry thought, to know that his son was that awful.  Percy didn't come to visit him even once, or even ask how he was, when he had almost died after being attacked by the snake that Harry had envisioned in his dream!

"Want to fly with me, Harry?  I was just going to go out to practice," said Ron to his friend.

"Sure!"  Harry loved any opportunity to fly on his Firebolt.  Ginny, Fred, and George accompanied them into the backyard.

The cool night air felt heavenly rustling through Harry's already messy black mane, and the nearly full moon gave adequate lighting for tossing around the Quaffle.  Harry, so thrilled to be away from the Dursleys the whole summer, promised Ron that he would help him practice every single day.  No more of the Slytherin version of "Weasley is our King" was going to be uttered by next Quidditch season.

Fred zoomed in front of Harry.  "Hey Harry, I think you'd be perfect for captain next year – since Angelina graduated and all."

Harry pondered this excitedly, but didn't want to sound like he was eager to be the captain.  "Yeah, well, maybe."

Ginny yelled teasingly, "But he might be a bit soft after that long break Umbridge gave you last year!"  Harry, half grinning, threw the Quaffle at her, but she caught it effortlessly.

"Whoa, Ginny! Good catch!"  Ron looked over at his younger sister, in admiration.

"Thanks!" she beamed.  Her eyes got really wide though, and she shrieked, "Ron, lookout! Bludger!"

"AHH!" Ron instinctively got out of the ball's way right before it struck him in the head, twirled around, and smacked the ball with the end of his Cleansweep.  They all watched it soar over the trees, and in lightning speed.

Fred and George both yelled, "Ron!"  They flew over to their brother and landed on each side of him.

"You are perfect!" George said.

Ron looked confused.  "For what?"

Fred smacked his brother's forehead with the Beater paddle playfully.  "Duh! Beater!  We've had the experience to see you would make an excellent one!"

Harry flew his broom and touched down.  He ran over to the trunk that held the beloved Quidditch equipment and got out a Beater's club.

"Here, take this," Harry told Ron excitedly.  Meanwhile, Fred and George had bewitched the Bludgers to go directly for Ron, so to test him on exactly how far his Beating skills went.

Ron was trembling and sweating, fear and panic were in his eyes, and his lip was nearly bleeding from him biting down on it, but much to everyone's awe, not one Bludger even got close to touching him.

"Little brother, you are excellent!" Fred exclaimed proudly after they had been forced by Mrs. Weasley to get inside and quit fooling around that late at night.

"Yes, a good dose of healthy fear seemed to be all you needed to make you into an excellent Quidditch player!" added George.  "Maybe we should attach spiders to them as well!"

Ron gulped at the mere thought of spiders.  "No, I think I'll do fine," he squeaked.

"Well, I'm going straight to bed," Ginny said as she yawned.  "Dean is coming over for dinner tomorrow..." her voice got softer the higher upstairs she went.

Ron went red in the face as he plopped down on the living room couch.  "It's weird.  I'll always think of Ginny as my pesky little sister.  Not someone who would go out with one of my friends."

"Yeah, I'd imagine it would be," replied Harry as he, Fred, and George joined Ron.

An evil grin appeared on George's face.  "Yes, and it would also be weird for Ginny to have her older brother date one of _her friends. Don't you think, Fred?"_

Fred started to laugh as Ron sank deeper into the cushions, looking very much embarrassed.  "Oh yes, especially if she was... loony."

Harry stared at Ron, waiting for his friend to give him an answer so he could understand what the twins were talking about.  But Ron stayed silent, looking more uncomfortable by the minute.

As if a light bulb had went off in, it dawned on Harry who they were talking about.  "Loony? You mean… as in Luna Lovegood?"

Ron hesitated before finally nodding.  "Well I mean, she invited me on a date…" Ron noticed Harry's slight grin.  "I told them I wasn't going!" he yelled, pointing to Fred and George.  "No way!"  He sharply stood up.

The twins roared with laughter.  "Oh brother, how easily it is to get to you.  Just the mere mention of girls -"

"Shut up!" Ron turned around to leave, leaving Harry with Fred and George, who were now rolling on the floor, clutching their sides and singing a little tune of "Loopy Loony Luna Lovegood."

Harry ran up to join Ron in his room.  He was changing into his pajamas, and Harry faced the other way and did the same.

"So… Luna asked you on a date?" Harry asked casually as he zipped himself into a sleeping bag at the foot of Ron's bed.  He didn't want to bother Ron, but he was just too curious to find out what the deal was.

"Well, I didn't consider it a date, but everyone else in this house took it to be that."

"Where did she ask you to meet her at?"  Harry's mind drifted off for a second to the little tearoom Cho had took him on Valentine's Day – and how horribly it had ended.

"She owled me an invitation to go to dinner with her father…."

"Oh." To Harry, that didn't seem very fun.

"…with the members of the Chudley Canons. Apparently, her father put an outstanding article on them out in _The Quibbler_."

Harry whose eyelids were beginning to feel heavy with sleepiness, shot wide open.  "And you're not going? Ron, that's your favorite team!"

Ron sighed. "I know – but Harry – it's _Luna Lovegood_."

Harry rolled his eyes.  "Oh, she's not that bad.  You're honestly going to miss the chance of a lifetime all because you are worried people would consider it a date?"  Ron mumbled something, and Harry could tell that Ron wasn't convinced that he should go.  "Come on!  A date is a lovey dovey tea party with confetti and crap like that - and just two people.  You're going to be with her father and the whole team, not just Luna."

"Yeah, I suppose your right," he replied in a better tone.

"Fred and George are just jealous that they don't get to come along too."

Ron said loudly, "Yeah, that's right.  They're jealous! Plain and simple! I shouldn't pay any attention to them."

"Ron, turn off that light now!" Harry jumped at the voice.  It was Mrs. Weasley, who had just swiftly opened the door to the bedroom, and barked her last orders of the night.  "Harry has to get an early start tomorrow morning."

"I do?"

"Yes! Dumbledore is picking you up.  You are going to live with him over the summer!"

~*~


End file.
